Wallace, David (2024) Learning to Represent: Mathematics-first accounts of representation and their relation to natural language. [Preprint]

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Abstract

I develop an account of how mathematized theories in physics represent physical systems, in response to the frequent claim that any such account must presuppose a non-mathematized, and usually linguistic, description of the system represented. The account I develop contains a circularity, in that representation is a mathematical relation between the models of a theory and the system as represented by some other model --- but I argue that this circularity is not vicious, in any case refers in linguistic accounts of meaning and representation, and is simply a consequence of the fact that we have no unmediated, representation-independent access to the world.

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Item Type:	Preprint
Creators:	Creators Email ORCID Wallace, David david.wallace@pitt.edu
Keywords:	structural realism representation semantic view of theories mathematics-first
Subjects:	General Issues > Scientific Metaphysics General Issues > Models and Idealization General Issues > Realism/Anti-realism General Issues > Structure of Theories
Depositing User:	Professor David Wallace
Date Deposited:	24 Mar 2024 01:37
Last Modified:	24 Mar 2024 01:37
Item ID:	23224
Subjects:	General Issues > Scientific Metaphysics General Issues > Models and Idealization General Issues > Realism/Anti-realism General Issues > Structure of Theories
Date:	2024
URI:	https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/23224

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